This week we offer something slightly new. Tom McCall (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) and Aaron Denlinger (Reformation Bible College) each provide their own review of the new edited work by David and Jonathan Gibson. Tom and Aaron hold differing views on the issue but what they offer us is the opportunity to see how they each analyze the concerns and theological commitments that attend the history of definite atonement’s development as well as the pastoral sensitivities that are bound up with the doctrine.

Our book review section, Shelf Life, seeks to function as a kind of common room that draws reviewers and readers into a conversation of ideas. In this instance, we see this worked out between two reviewers. I’m delighted Tom and Aaron have accepted the challenge to review such an important – not to mention, large – work. Since the theme of the book finds a more comfortable and welcome home here at Ref21, I’ve decided to begin with Aaron’s review and allow Tom to have the final word.

This multi-authored volume, edited by brothers David and Jonathan Gibson, is a carefully ordered exposition and defense of the teaching that Jesus Christ–in harmony with his Father’s intention, the effectual call and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, and his own High Priestly role as intercessor for believers–secured perfect and full salvation for, and only for, his chosen people by his death upon the cross. It is, in other words, a defense of the doctrine of definite atonement, a.k.a. the doctrine of particular redemption, or less helpfully if more popularly, the doctrine of limited atonement.

The first of four overarching sections in the book examines the historical development of this doctrine. Chapters from Michael Haykin and David Hogg consider patristic and medieval teachings on the extent of the atonement in turn. Certain church fathers are shown to have anticipated aspects of the early modern doctrine of definite atonement, especially in their interpretation of the biblical terms “many,” “all,” and “the (whole) world”–terms naming the beneficiaries of Christ’s redeeming work–as designations of believers. A more thoroughly defined doctrine of definite atonement developed in the Middle Ages, when theologians began to advance a distinction between the sufficiency and the efficiency of Christ’s satisfaction, limiting the latter to the elect. Paul Helm navigates the treacherous historiographical waters of John Calvin’s teaching on the extent of the atonement, ultimately defending the view that numerous elements of Calvin’s theology are consonant with–and only with–the doctrine of definite atonement, even if the reformer never explicitly addressed the exact issue of the atonement’s extent.

Raymond Blacketer debunks the myth that Theodore Beza radically departed from Calvin’s teaching on this matter by both contextualizing and carefully examining Beza’s actual teaching, concluding that “neither Calvin nor Beza provide a fully elaborated doctrine of the extent of Christ’s redemption, though they share a discernible tendency towards particularism” (p. 140). Debate over the extent of the atonement at the international synod of Reformed divines at Dordt (1618-1619), when the issue was brought to the foreground by the controversy surrounding Jacob Arminius’s teaching, is covered by Lee Gatiss. Amar Djaballah explores the doctrine of Moïse Amyraut, seventeenth-century proponent of an atonement theory–or more precisely, one peculiar version of it–which is generally labelled “hypothetical universalism,” and was championed by numerous Reformed divines over against the doctrine of definite atonement held by their peers. Djaballah’s chapter is perfectly complemented by Carl Trueman’s subsequent treatment of John Owen, arguably the most famous seventeenth-century proponent of definite atonement.

Section Two, titled “Definite Atonement in the Bible,” follows a canonical pattern. Paul Williamson and J. Alec Motyer offer Old Testament studies exploring implications of Israel’s sacrificial practices and the Servant Songs of Isaiah for questions concerning the scope of the true Lamb of God’s atonement. Matthew Harmon’s survey of the Synoptic Gospels and Johannine Literature highlights the ultimate purpose (the glory of God) and eventual outcome (the salvation of God’s people) of Christ’s sacrificial death, arguing from both themes for a definite extent to the atonement. Jonathan Gibson contributes two chapters looking at Paul’s writings: the first examines in turn Pauline texts which ascribe a particular reference to Christ’s redeeming work and those which appear to ascribe a universal reference to the same; the second explores Pauline concepts (union with Christ, the Trinity, etc.) which necessarily impinge upon the question of the atonement’s extent. Thomas Schreiner concludes the section on Scripture by considering “problematic texts” for the doctrine of definite atonement–texts, that is, which seem to assert that Christ died for all persons indiscriminately or even specifically for some who perish–and showing how they might be faithfully interpreted in ways that harmonize with an understanding of definite atonement.

Donald Macleod inaugurates the section titled “Definite Atonement in Theological Perspective” with a thorough and precise taxonomy of positions relating Christ’s atonement to God’s eternal decree(s), ultimately claiming that definite atonement best reflects the coherence of the Triune God’s purpose of salvation and the “organic unity” of that purpose’s realization (p. 434). Robert Letham’s chapter on the Trinity, incarnation, and the atonement sounds a similar note, arguing somewhat more polemically that views on the atonement by Reformed hypothetical universalists and the Torrance brothers (James and T.F.) impute discord to the divine purpose. Garry Williams supplies two chapters to the cause: the first seeks to demonstrate, by means of a somewhat curious engagement with hypothetical universalists both old and new, that a doctrine of indefinite (universal) atonement ultimately undermines the nature of the atonement as a vicarious, penal substitution per se; the second (and far more compelling, in my judgment) aims to revive the argument that God cannot punish the same sin twice (and therefore cannot condemn one for whom Christ has died) by means of a careful consideration of precisely what the biblical, metaphorical language of sin asdebt entails. Stephen Wellum argues for definite atonement on the basis of the consistency of Christ’s priestly office: those for whom Christ intercedes as High Priest (believers) are those for whom Christ as High Priest offered himself as a sacrifice for sins. Henri Blocher’s chapter, concluding the third section, eventually argues for definite atonement on the basis of Christ’s proper humanity and federal headship, but supplies a fair bit of reflection on the nature of systematic theology and dogmatic claims en routeto that point, and thus might have been more suitably situated first in the order of theological essays.

The book’s final, and briefest, section examines the doctrine of definite atonement in pastoral practice. Daniel Strange reinforces a point made repeatedly throughout the volume, that definite atonement is perfectly compatible with universal proclamation of the gospel. In that process Strange problematizes the claim that universal atonement sits more comfortably with gospel proclamation by considering the theological implications of universal atonement for those who never hear the gospel. Sinclair Ferguson argues that the doctrine of definite atonement actually grounds, rather than destroys, believers’ assurance of their eternal salvation. John Piper’s chapter revisits a number of theological points developed throughout the volume, culminating in reflection upon the practical benefits of a firm grasp of definite atonement and, thus, the value of preaching the same to one’s congregation.

From Heaven He Came and Sought Her has been lauded as “the most impressive defense of definite atonement in over a century” (Michael Horton). I’d be willing to go a bit further and name it as the best defense of definite atonement at least since John Owen’s magisterial work The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647). Indeed, it may even rival that work. I suspect that both the editors and contributors of this book might baulk at having their collective effort compared to Owen’s work as equals. I would, however, defend my claim partially on the basis of certain characteristics of the work which I will shortly identify, and partially on the premise that when standing on the shoulders of theological giants, we–theological midgets that we are–see ever-so-slightly further than they.